Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Ageism Can Pay

Don't try this at home because more than likely you will get caught. John Berry, 54, (above), a resident of Bristol and a serial litigant, has initiated actions against at least 60 businesses over three years even though he doesn't apply for the jobs.

Mr Berry bombards employers with claims of ageism because they use the words 'school leaver' or 'recent graduate' in job advertisements. He uses the government's tribunal service website to lodge age discrimination claims against recruitment agencies and other employers.

Once the firm becomes aware of the action, Berry emails his targets to warn them they can avoid an employment tribunal only by making him a 'settlement' payment of up to £3,500. To encourage companies to settle, Berry usually opts to hold the tribunal far away from where the business is based.

Berry's claims are consistently struck out by tribunal chairmen as 'misconceived' and 'vexatious' but businesses can still be left with legal bills of about £9,000 because Berry ignores orders to pay costs. He has had claims struck out in London, Exeter, Bedford, Ashford, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Watford and Southampton in the past two years.

A solicitor said they had found 57 such court decisions with Berry's name on them, but that could be just the tip of the iceberg as it doesn't take account of all those people who chose to settle and not fight.

As Mr Berry is looking for a job I assume he receives job-seekers allowance. It's time HMRC checked out his total income and the Ministry of Justice changed the online system.

Some companies got caught in a spiral of youth recruitment. You could always tell how bad this was because the managers were dropped off by their mums.

The result of this went against the one asset that blue-chip companies have, and that is maturity, not just of staff, but of mission.

I worked for a bank many years ago, in fact I worked for several banks, some as a free-lance, in positions lowly and high. It was evident that, from time to time, someone got the bright idea of hiring an embryo to head a department, someone who was full of shit and possibly a lot of cocaine. These people came, told us in management speak how they were going to transform the company through out of the box thinking and blue sky initiatives, and then, about six months later,after alienating everybody, fucked off.